Urban greenery is an inevitable element of modern cities. Since urban soils have considerable influence on urban greenery growing, we characterized urban soils under sugar maple, Austrian pine and little-leaf linden in park Sihoť and Klokočina district in the town Nitra. Great part of soils in Nitra is strongly influenced by man (mainly by former building activities), therefore the most spread soil type is Calcaric Urbi-Anthropic Regosols with alkaline pH. Our results confirmed high spatial differences of soil forming substrate and soil properties in urban areas. High compaction in deeper parts of some profiles inhibits proper roots penetration. Great differences in macronutrient content between profiles are probably the consequence of using fertilisers in some parts of the park. Since both studied areas were out of high traffic and contained carbonates, significantly (P < 0.001) higher content of heavy metals (beside cadmium) in park Sihoť with compared to Klokočina district was probably due to higher clay content and longer period of uninterrupted exposition of soil surface to urban pollution in park Sihoť. Lead exceeded limit values stated for trees (1–3 mg.kg-1) in each profile. According to the Decree of Ministry of Agriculture of SR the available cadmium content exceeded the limit 0.3 mg.kg-1 in each profile beside lime in park Sihoť. Humus content and quality in Klokočina district was significantly (P < 0.001) lower and had great spatial variability with compared to park Sihoť. The reason could be lower age of trees in Klokočina and abandoned use of organic fertilisers. Determined soil properties did not have negative influence on health state of selected woody plants beside lime in park Sihoť, which slightly suffered with drought.